I will never understand the kind of soulless hate that leads people to kill without a conscience. I can't imagine feeling that. I've been so sad this past week about the loss of life, the effect on those who knew Charlie, and the effect on those of us who didn't. The hateful responses are just beyond me. It feels like we have lost all conscientiousness and compassion. And the struggle for power in the aftermath of something like this leaves me bewildered. The blame game gets us nowhere. All I can do is pray to the God who I believe makes all things right in His time. In the midst of all the hatred is love and people turning to God for answers which still manages to give me hope for us all.
Jan, thank you for this remarkable post. It's well thought through and well written. I share your lack of understanding of these kind of hate motivated assassinations and in the case of 9-11, hate motivated mass murder.
When I was young, watching the documentary Night and Fog in my early 20s had a big impact on me. It was made in 1956, the year I was born. I had general knowledge of the horrors of the intentional Nazi effort to rid the world of Jews. Watching this film impacted me very personally, and I committed to learning more and doing what I could to raise awareness. I learned about the many ways in which my church and in which my country, Canada, has persecuted and continues to persecute Jews. One of the worst examples in Canada's history, was turning away the SS St. Louis, a ship loaded with over 1,000 Jews who in 1939 had escaped the Nazis. They were turned away by Cuba, who had issued them visas, by the US and by Canada. They ended up back in Belgium and 254 died in Nazi concentration camps.
My decision to try to increase awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, was at a time when the society I lived in wanted to move on without coming to terms with or learning from our part in these atrocities. Fortunately, by that time, thanks to St. John Paul II, my church was taking concrete steps to come to terms with its antisemitic past. I served for several years on the Calgary Council of Christians and Jews as a representative of the Calgary Catholic Diocese. I felt positive about the progress we seemed to be making.
To now see open protests in the streets of Calgary and across Canada, with large groups of people shouting hateful, threatening, and dehumanizing slogans against Jews, breaks my heart.
Dehumanizing others is the first step towards evil, horrific events of this and every age in human history.
Jan, thank you for your courage in writing this thought-provoking piece.
Oh, Karen, thank YOU for sharing your knowledge & experience. I learned a lot. Sometimes it is really hard to understand how other people see things. Justifying violence just boggles my mind. We just have to keep talking... {{Hugs}}
Alot of hate is learned but I believe the major issue is ignoring mental health at a young age, If we recognize these issues early in life we can start to treat these issues. No matter the amount of gun control or peaceful debate that we preach there has been aand always will be hate and discontent for people with varying opinions. I believe if we can just begin to understand that another person's opinion is just that an opinion just like the one we have on any matter and each have the right to one's opinion the world might just have a little less hate and a little more understanding.
Oh yes, Dennis ~ more education on the symptoms of mental illness would be so helpful, I think. We've gradually accepted more "weirdness" in society so we miss some of the obvious clues that kids need help. Thanks for commenting. {{Hugs}}
Thank you for your honest and heartfelt reflections, Jan. Your question struck a deep chord in me: “Is the hate that causes political violence inevitable? Or is it learned?” I’ve been thinking on it for a few weeks since I read your blog post.
We won’t find a good answer anywhere - not in philosophy, education, evolutionary theory, social justice, politics, etc., except from a complete biblical perspective. From a biblical perspective, we see that hate is neither simply learned nor unavoidable. It's a result of the fallen nature of man. The very first recorded act of violence in Scripture is Cain killing his brother Abel. This violence was born from jealousy, pride, and unrepentant sin. Genesis 4:7-8 (KJV) shows God warning Cain beforehand:
“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
But Cain chose not to deal with the sin outside the door of his heart. Instead scripture records,
“Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” (Genesis 4:8)
This is the first picture of hate turning into violence. It's sobering. It reveals how deeply sin has corrupted the human heart… Here are the first children of the Bible, and it is evident that sin didn’t “evolve,” but once Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin entered into the world full-blown. Paul the Apostle writes in Romans:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
And, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
But thank God, the story doesn't end there.
Jesus came into the world not only to expose the darkness, but to defeat it. Jesus said:
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Christ came to set us free from the hatred that enslaves mankind. As Isaiah prophesied of Jesus:
“He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1)
This is fulfilled in Christ, who said:
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) And when He reads scripture in the Synagogue in Luke 4 where he quotes the passage in Isaiah.
Through Jesus, we can be free from sin and live above it; thus, freed from the hatred in our hearts, but it is not by our own strength, but by the transforming power of grace. The Bible shows us that God’s grace is prevenient which means it goes before us and is drawing us, convicting us, and enabling us to respond, and hopefully we respond in repentance and faith (it is our freewill to choose God or not).
In Psalm 51, David records, “In sin my mother did conceive me.” This means that we are all born with the sin-nature within us. Therefore, we all have it within us to hate, kill, destroy, lie, steal, etc. You see this sin-nature (also known as carnality) in children rather early on. When a 1-2 year old starts crying and whining, but they are not hungry or tired… they are just crying to cry and get attention - that is a result of the sin-nature in the heart of every person. Another example would be when you tell a kid not to eat the cookies on the counter, and they reach up and take a cookie… or you see it online on a video when they tell the kid not to eat the candy in front of them and then the parent leaves and is recording the incident. It seems funny, but in reality, it’s the fallen nature of man being displayed. The child typically goes on and defies the parent’s direction and openly rebels against them such as taking the candy and eating it. What is it? It’s the person’s “bent toward sinning.” Their heart is not made perfectly straight. In cars, we could say that their alignment is off. They are born in sin, and therefore, they sin and thus are called sinners. But when confronted by the Holy Ghost of our sinfulness, we have the capacity to choose (freewill) love and righteousness through Christ or to continue in sinful hate and devilish rebellion. When people reject God, His Truth, and His Word, they often become worse and worse. But, if we choose to follow Christ when He’s made known to us Himself and we’ve confessed our sins before Him, we can be made new and Jesus can “Wash all my sins away,” as the hymn writer penned.
As Paul writes:
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:7)
This new life in Christ includes a new heart. Ezekiel prophesied of the New Covenant:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you… and I will cause you to walk in my statutes.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
Ezekiel said that the new heart God gives us will cause us to walk in His statutes. Many modern “Christians,” say “if we walk in His statues we will have a new heart,” but that’s not scriptural. It’s helpful to walk in scriptural statutes and it will cause you to live a decent life, typically, but God must give you a new heart in order for you to divinely walk in God’s statutes at His level of expectation. Therefore, we cannot love our neighbor rightly until we first love God fully.
Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
Many today like to quote the second part without the first but without a full-hearted love for God, our love for others is partial, conditional, and weak… in other words, selfish and self-motivating. Only the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5), can truly drive out hate.
Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it was said… Thou shalt not kill… But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22) Here, Jesus explained that we will be judged by the motive of our hearts. That if we hate someone, we’re already guilty of murder. That’s a close line of living Jesus is preaching.
And further, Jesus commands, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you… that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:44-45)
This kind of love is called “agape” in the Greek and it’s a divine love, and it is not possible through human effort alone. It is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), cultivated in a heart fully surrendered to Christ. The Bible teaches that we are not doomed to remain in bondage to sin. By grace, through faith, and entire sanctification, we can be made holy. That is, not perfect in knowledge, but perfected in love (1 John 4:18).
Yes, hatred is real, but it is not unbreakable.
Yes, darkness is deep, but Christ is the Light of the world (John 8:12).
Yes, the world is divided, but Jesus prayed that we might be one (as Christians) (John 17:21).
You wrote, “Maybe we can add more Light.” That’s not just a hope, but it is our calling as followers of Christ:
“Ye are the light of the world… Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
So no, hate is not inevitable. It does not need to be our destiny.
We were created in God’s image, marred by sin, but are redeemed by the blood of Christ.
And He can cleanse the heart of hatred and replace it with divine love BUT ONLY IF we surrender FULLY, love Him with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and WALK in the Spirit.
The Gospel is the answer.
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Thank you Jan, I didn’t realize who Charlie Kirk was until I saw a picture of him when my husband who follows Charlie Kirk told me about him and what happened to him. I actually looked him up and realized I did know him. I liked how he debated and wanted young kids college kids to know they had a voice and that he honored that. I too after he passed, looked him up and pretty much tried to watch everything on him to see exactly what he debated on, and what the college kids debated on. And through knowing this, I realized he also was spreading the word of God and quoting some of the verses in the Bible and that’s what got me interested in Charlie. I couldn’t imagine being a wife with young children as young as Charlie’s kids are having to explain why their daddy wasn’t coming home. I too kind of had a dark side with the gentleman that chat Charlie I actually thought he deserves what he gets, but then God came into the picture and said not only did Charlie’s life got taken, so did that young man. We all have to learn, including myself, that peoples opinions are just that opinions. And we need to know when we have taken those opinions to far. It does make me wonder how people become so hateful that they have to take the life of others regardless of it being Martin Luther King Charlie Kirk even all those who lost their lives on 9/11. My hope and my prayer is that we all learn to love others as God has loved us. That is my hope and prayer for our country and the people in it. Thank you Jan for such a wonderful post.
Every time you said you were shocked I felt the same. It is always shocking when these type of events reach us! I think maybe because we do not all have a dark side, that is why we continue to be shocked by atrocities committed against our fellow human beings. I pray continuously for God to have an impact on my life and others, to have an effect on others to get through the dark times and still see the good in so many of our fellow friends and neighbors everywhere.
I will never understand the kind of soulless hate that leads people to kill without a conscience. I can't imagine feeling that. I've been so sad this past week about the loss of life, the effect on those who knew Charlie, and the effect on those of us who didn't. The hateful responses are just beyond me. It feels like we have lost all conscientiousness and compassion. And the struggle for power in the aftermath of something like this leaves me bewildered. The blame game gets us nowhere. All I can do is pray to the God who I believe makes all things right in His time. In the midst of all the hatred is love and people turning to God for answers which still manages to give me hope for us all.
I agree with you 100%, Cathey. I am amazed by the number of people turning to God in these trying times. xoxo
Jan, thank you for this remarkable post. It's well thought through and well written. I share your lack of understanding of these kind of hate motivated assassinations and in the case of 9-11, hate motivated mass murder.
When I was young, watching the documentary Night and Fog in my early 20s had a big impact on me. It was made in 1956, the year I was born. I had general knowledge of the horrors of the intentional Nazi effort to rid the world of Jews. Watching this film impacted me very personally, and I committed to learning more and doing what I could to raise awareness. I learned about the many ways in which my church and in which my country, Canada, has persecuted and continues to persecute Jews. One of the worst examples in Canada's history, was turning away the SS St. Louis, a ship loaded with over 1,000 Jews who in 1939 had escaped the Nazis. They were turned away by Cuba, who had issued them visas, by the US and by Canada. They ended up back in Belgium and 254 died in Nazi concentration camps.
My decision to try to increase awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, was at a time when the society I lived in wanted to move on without coming to terms with or learning from our part in these atrocities. Fortunately, by that time, thanks to St. John Paul II, my church was taking concrete steps to come to terms with its antisemitic past. I served for several years on the Calgary Council of Christians and Jews as a representative of the Calgary Catholic Diocese. I felt positive about the progress we seemed to be making.
To now see open protests in the streets of Calgary and across Canada, with large groups of people shouting hateful, threatening, and dehumanizing slogans against Jews, breaks my heart.
Dehumanizing others is the first step towards evil, horrific events of this and every age in human history.
Jan, thank you for your courage in writing this thought-provoking piece.
Oh, Karen, thank YOU for sharing your knowledge & experience. I learned a lot. Sometimes it is really hard to understand how other people see things. Justifying violence just boggles my mind. We just have to keep talking... {{Hugs}}
Alot of hate is learned but I believe the major issue is ignoring mental health at a young age, If we recognize these issues early in life we can start to treat these issues. No matter the amount of gun control or peaceful debate that we preach there has been aand always will be hate and discontent for people with varying opinions. I believe if we can just begin to understand that another person's opinion is just that an opinion just like the one we have on any matter and each have the right to one's opinion the world might just have a little less hate and a little more understanding.
Oh yes, Dennis ~ more education on the symptoms of mental illness would be so helpful, I think. We've gradually accepted more "weirdness" in society so we miss some of the obvious clues that kids need help. Thanks for commenting. {{Hugs}}
The President could help with that if he would change his rhetoric and set an example.
Yes, definitely. All leaders need to say less provocative things and stop blaming each other. xoxo
We can't place this on one man or woman it is society's responsibility as a whole
Thank you for your honest and heartfelt reflections, Jan. Your question struck a deep chord in me: “Is the hate that causes political violence inevitable? Or is it learned?” I’ve been thinking on it for a few weeks since I read your blog post.
We won’t find a good answer anywhere - not in philosophy, education, evolutionary theory, social justice, politics, etc., except from a complete biblical perspective. From a biblical perspective, we see that hate is neither simply learned nor unavoidable. It's a result of the fallen nature of man. The very first recorded act of violence in Scripture is Cain killing his brother Abel. This violence was born from jealousy, pride, and unrepentant sin. Genesis 4:7-8 (KJV) shows God warning Cain beforehand:
“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
But Cain chose not to deal with the sin outside the door of his heart. Instead scripture records,
“Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” (Genesis 4:8)
This is the first picture of hate turning into violence. It's sobering. It reveals how deeply sin has corrupted the human heart… Here are the first children of the Bible, and it is evident that sin didn’t “evolve,” but once Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin entered into the world full-blown. Paul the Apostle writes in Romans:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
And, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
But thank God, the story doesn't end there.
Jesus came into the world not only to expose the darkness, but to defeat it. Jesus said:
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Christ came to set us free from the hatred that enslaves mankind. As Isaiah prophesied of Jesus:
“He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1)
This is fulfilled in Christ, who said:
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) And when He reads scripture in the Synagogue in Luke 4 where he quotes the passage in Isaiah.
Through Jesus, we can be free from sin and live above it; thus, freed from the hatred in our hearts, but it is not by our own strength, but by the transforming power of grace. The Bible shows us that God’s grace is prevenient which means it goes before us and is drawing us, convicting us, and enabling us to respond, and hopefully we respond in repentance and faith (it is our freewill to choose God or not).
In Psalm 51, David records, “In sin my mother did conceive me.” This means that we are all born with the sin-nature within us. Therefore, we all have it within us to hate, kill, destroy, lie, steal, etc. You see this sin-nature (also known as carnality) in children rather early on. When a 1-2 year old starts crying and whining, but they are not hungry or tired… they are just crying to cry and get attention - that is a result of the sin-nature in the heart of every person. Another example would be when you tell a kid not to eat the cookies on the counter, and they reach up and take a cookie… or you see it online on a video when they tell the kid not to eat the candy in front of them and then the parent leaves and is recording the incident. It seems funny, but in reality, it’s the fallen nature of man being displayed. The child typically goes on and defies the parent’s direction and openly rebels against them such as taking the candy and eating it. What is it? It’s the person’s “bent toward sinning.” Their heart is not made perfectly straight. In cars, we could say that their alignment is off. They are born in sin, and therefore, they sin and thus are called sinners. But when confronted by the Holy Ghost of our sinfulness, we have the capacity to choose (freewill) love and righteousness through Christ or to continue in sinful hate and devilish rebellion. When people reject God, His Truth, and His Word, they often become worse and worse. But, if we choose to follow Christ when He’s made known to us Himself and we’ve confessed our sins before Him, we can be made new and Jesus can “Wash all my sins away,” as the hymn writer penned.
As Paul writes:
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:7)
This new life in Christ includes a new heart. Ezekiel prophesied of the New Covenant:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you… and I will cause you to walk in my statutes.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
Ezekiel said that the new heart God gives us will cause us to walk in His statutes. Many modern “Christians,” say “if we walk in His statues we will have a new heart,” but that’s not scriptural. It’s helpful to walk in scriptural statutes and it will cause you to live a decent life, typically, but God must give you a new heart in order for you to divinely walk in God’s statutes at His level of expectation. Therefore, we cannot love our neighbor rightly until we first love God fully.
Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
Many today like to quote the second part without the first but without a full-hearted love for God, our love for others is partial, conditional, and weak… in other words, selfish and self-motivating. Only the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5), can truly drive out hate.
Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it was said… Thou shalt not kill… But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22) Here, Jesus explained that we will be judged by the motive of our hearts. That if we hate someone, we’re already guilty of murder. That’s a close line of living Jesus is preaching.
And further, Jesus commands, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you… that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:44-45)
This kind of love is called “agape” in the Greek and it’s a divine love, and it is not possible through human effort alone. It is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), cultivated in a heart fully surrendered to Christ. The Bible teaches that we are not doomed to remain in bondage to sin. By grace, through faith, and entire sanctification, we can be made holy. That is, not perfect in knowledge, but perfected in love (1 John 4:18).
Yes, hatred is real, but it is not unbreakable.
Yes, darkness is deep, but Christ is the Light of the world (John 8:12).
Yes, the world is divided, but Jesus prayed that we might be one (as Christians) (John 17:21).
You wrote, “Maybe we can add more Light.” That’s not just a hope, but it is our calling as followers of Christ:
“Ye are the light of the world… Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
So no, hate is not inevitable. It does not need to be our destiny.
We were created in God’s image, marred by sin, but are redeemed by the blood of Christ.
And He can cleanse the heart of hatred and replace it with divine love BUT ONLY IF we surrender FULLY, love Him with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and WALK in the Spirit.
The Gospel is the answer.
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Thank you Jan, I didn’t realize who Charlie Kirk was until I saw a picture of him when my husband who follows Charlie Kirk told me about him and what happened to him. I actually looked him up and realized I did know him. I liked how he debated and wanted young kids college kids to know they had a voice and that he honored that. I too after he passed, looked him up and pretty much tried to watch everything on him to see exactly what he debated on, and what the college kids debated on. And through knowing this, I realized he also was spreading the word of God and quoting some of the verses in the Bible and that’s what got me interested in Charlie. I couldn’t imagine being a wife with young children as young as Charlie’s kids are having to explain why their daddy wasn’t coming home. I too kind of had a dark side with the gentleman that chat Charlie I actually thought he deserves what he gets, but then God came into the picture and said not only did Charlie’s life got taken, so did that young man. We all have to learn, including myself, that peoples opinions are just that opinions. And we need to know when we have taken those opinions to far. It does make me wonder how people become so hateful that they have to take the life of others regardless of it being Martin Luther King Charlie Kirk even all those who lost their lives on 9/11. My hope and my prayer is that we all learn to love others as God has loved us. That is my hope and prayer for our country and the people in it. Thank you Jan for such a wonderful post.
Every time you said you were shocked I felt the same. It is always shocking when these type of events reach us! I think maybe because we do not all have a dark side, that is why we continue to be shocked by atrocities committed against our fellow human beings. I pray continuously for God to have an impact on my life and others, to have an effect on others to get through the dark times and still see the good in so many of our fellow friends and neighbors everywhere.
Harriet Amendola